It is a great compliment to a wine knife when the first time it is used is reserved for a highly refined wine made by a “legend”. For restaurateur Ignace Lecleir, that wine was a Didier Dagueneau Silex 2007.
Ignace is owner of Temple Restaurant in Beijing, in the Dongchen District. Being based in China he finds it very exciting to be part of a growing awareness of, and love for wine – “on different levels within the price spectrum”, he adds.
He tells me that while his favourite wine variety is Pinot Noir, especially from Burgundy, and more specifically, “any aged Burgundy from a good producer”, he recently had the pleasure of opening a bottle of Savagnin from Maison Pierre Overnoy( Arbois-Pupillin in the Juras). “I completely fell in love with the complexity of the wine”, he adds.
And in fact it’s hard for Ignace to choose his favourite white, there being so many he loves. Were money no object, however, he would go for a Batard Montrachet from Domaine Pierre Morey.
He has no isolated wine moment or experience which stands out as memorable. For Ignace, “every day is a memorable experience.”
But back to that wine knife. It’s both the design “and the way it feels” that has Ignace giving his Code38 the thumbs-up.
